An Irishwoman's Diary

FUNNY how many great thoroughbreds have names that begin with S – Sea the Stars, Sadler’s Wells, Storm Cat, Seattle Slew, Secretariat, Seabiscuit; all kings in their time, all heroes.

The same letter S also stands for speed and stamina. No human athlete can hope to match the beauty and the mystery of a champion race horse. Recent memory cherishes the ease of Sea the Stars as he burst through a wall of world class horses and lifted a nation en route to the Prix de L’Arc. Sadler’s Wells, an American horse standing in Ireland and now retired is still possibly the most successful sire of all time, while mention of Seabiscuit evokes a mythic period when a little horse whose career had begun most unimpressively, drew 78,000 Americans at the height of the Depression, just to watch him run.

But Secretariat, winner of the 1973 American Triple Crown, three tough races in five weeks, is a god residing on a special planet.

It is not all that long ago – 37 years – since the big chestnut with the three white socks and a trailing star on his face dominated the world headlines, and finally the movie, the most surprising aspect of which is that it took so long for someone to make it. But make it Disney has and if this sounds like a “feel good” project, so what? It is a “feel good” story that may sound like a fairy tale, but it is true.

Added to all of this is the fact that the hero is played by a ridiculously good-looking horse with huge presence and beautiful eyes. And rightly so, the real Secretariat was a magnificent creature who always enjoyed being photographed, responded to the click of camera. He was a horse that liked people and people loved him.

There has been some criticism of the film makers for “playing down” the races but that is because the races and Secretariat’s glorious, surreal career was unbelievable, truly the stuff of Hollywood. Anyone who disagrees should look up the 1973 Belmont Stakes, the third part of Secretariat’s Triple Crown and there it is, as true as life and twice as crazy. Secretariat, by then famous for coming from the back of the field, burst to the front from the gate, in the longest race he had ever run and simply ran faster and faster, to win by a record 31 lengths in a time which has never been beaten. Put in perspective, it makes Ben Johnson’s steroid-assisted 100 metres “victory” at the Seoul Olympics in 1988 look normal – except that Secretariat was running on natural, uncorrupted genius.

Foaled on March 30th, 1970, he was an aristocrat, a blueblood son of Bold Ruler, by Something Royal. With parents like that it was obvious he was destined to be special. He was bred in Virginia and Penny Chenery, the woman who masterminded his career by gathering a team of experts to help him help her save her family’s stud farm, The Meadow, only became involved by fate. Her mother had died and her father by then was suffering from dementia. The farm was about to be lost through bad management, shady staff and heavy debts. It is true that the movie gives more space to the humans than most racing fans want, but it is interesting to see the reality and the stress dictating events behind the scenes.

Having apparently, initially, impressed his groom Eddie Sweat and dismayed his trainer Lucien Laurin, a temperamental, colourfully eccentric French-Canadian by the amount of eating and sleeping he liked to do, Secretariat began serious racing and had six major wins as a two-year-old, including the Belmont Futurity Stakes. At the end of that season he was acknowledged not only as the champion two-year-old colt but also as Horse of the Year.

It was a great result but it made for expectations of a Triple Crown and all the pressure that goes with being a favourite. Behind the scenes Chenery was still trying to save the family farm and Secretariat was her only hope. All of this is in the movie and most of it is well documented – at least, the racing aspect of it. Yet knowing the history doesn’t make the movie any less nail biting.

In Chenery, Secretariat had an owner who believed in him; he also had a trainer who was fully engaged and there was a brilliant jockey, Ron Turcotte. Most of all, there was the incentive that every champion needs, a worthy rival and in the menacing shape of Sham (owned by a man who liked to remind Penny Chenery that she was a housewife) Secretariat had a great horse to push him. The 1973 racing season in the US was dominated by that rivalry. Secretariat was on the cover of Time magazine, Newsweek and Sports Illustrated. He won the Kentucky Derby in a track record, the Preakness Stakes in a track record, and, with that staggering triumph in the Belmont Stakes, ran into history. He followed his Triple Crown – the first one in 25 years – with six further wins and immortality.

Yet again he was declared Horse of the Year. He retired to stud at Claiborne Farm in Kentucky. He sired 653 foals including 57 stake winners. None matched him, but then, who has? He died, aged 19, in October 1989 and his entire body, including his stupendous heart, is buried at Claiborne. At his peak he inspired a hardened reporter on the New York Post to write: “Secretariat is the kind of Big Horse that makes grown men weep.” It sums up the wonder that was Secretariat, deservedly voted one of the greatest American athletes of all time.